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Stances & Heian Shodan Application (video)

On 22 Jul, 2011By Iain Abernethy

This video was filmed in July 2011 at Marc and Dianna MacYoung’s annual Animal List BBQ in Colorado, USA. It was an amazing four days spent in the company of many highly talented people. I taught for a couple of hours on the Saturday where I covered general kata principles. This clip shows a little of our discussion on the application of stances.

Stances are frequently viewed as something fixed and static; whereas in truth they are momentary positions moved to and thorough in order to facilitate the efficient use of bodyweight. This is what is behind Funakoshi’s statement that “Fixed postures are for beginners; the advanced student uses natural postures”. There is more on this statement in the video itself.

I use the opening three motions of Heian Shodan (Pinan Nidan) to demonstrate the general concept. Notice how the front stances add to the shifting of body mass on all three techniques. One other important point to understand is that the angle in the kata represents the angle you should be in relation to your enemy. Because the first motion of Heian Shodan is at ninety-degrees, I follow the kata and shift to ninety-degrees in relation to my partner when applying the first technique. Angles were explained in the session too and I’ll make a related clip available soon.

I hope you enjoy this clip and I’ll be back with more soon.

All the best,

Iain

PS If you would prefer to watch this video on Youtube, please click HERE